1. Field
Various embodiments discussed herein relate to a method and system of processing destination data of a message prior to transmission of the message.
2. Description of the Related Art
It is not uncommon that an electronic message (e.g., email) is misaddressed in haste or simply as the result of an oversight. In that event, personal, proprietary, or simply embarrassing information can and does fall into the wrong hands, e.g., a business competitor, the opposing party in a legal proceeding, or a spouse in the case of an extramarital affair, with attendant negative moral, social, or economic consequences. What is needed is the insertion of a check and alert step in the process of creating and transmitting electronic messages in order to prevent inadvertent transmission of sensitive or personal information.
The use of an “outbound blacklist” is one method that could be implemented to help prevent the inadvertent transmission of sensitive information to a known but unintended recipient. A “blacklist”, in the context of a received email (i.e., as messages exchanged between senders and receivers via the internet are commonly known), generally refers to a list of email senders (or their internet domains) that is maintained by email recipients. It is used by “spam” or “junkmail” filters to divert undesired incoming email to spam or junkmail “folders” on an email server or on the recipient's computer. For example, a user who knows he doesn't want to be bothered with advertising for X could blacklist email from Y to block or divert that email. In this case, a blacklist has been used to block the reception of unwanted email.
Although various blacklisting techniques are available for filtering a received email that has been sent from a source, there is a need for a tool for preventing inadvertent transmission of messages.